The snowfield looked like someone had overturned a bucket of red ink over a blank page.
Scarlet seeped across the pure white world, staining it in a way that made the eyes sting.
The screams behind Moria, once drowned out by the constant thunder of his clash with Kaido, now pierced straight into his eardrums like a thousand needles.
The confident grin on his face froze.
In those eyes that had burned with ambition moments ago, a different scene was reflected now.
Hell.
His crewmates who had been cheering for him just a second ago, who believed he would lead them all to the summit of the world, were being torn apart like fragile dolls.
A black wing of flame swept past and his most trusted navigator howled in agony, engulfed in inextinguishable fire before turning into a lump of charred black.
A hail of bullets tore through the ranks and the battle captains he had once been so proud of erupted into sprays of blood, collapsing in swaths without even a chance to counterattack.
The old friend who had gone to sea with him, who had sworn to witness him becoming king, was run through the chest on an ivory longblade and lifted high into the air, that face still frozen in disbelief.
Slaughter.
This was not a battle. It was one-sided slaughter.
"Ji… hihi…?"
A meaningless sound scratched its way out of Moria's throat, like his mind could not comprehend what his eyes were seeing.
The pirate crew he had been so proud of, the comrades he trusted so much, were wiped out completely while he focused all of himself on challenging the strongest enemy.
"No… nooooooo!"
A roar tore out of his chest, raw and ragged, filled with boundless regret and rage.
He turned his back on Kaido, his body dissolving into a mass of shadow as he threw himself toward the All Stars without a second thought.
"Do not touch my crew!"
Shadows gathered beneath his feet into razor sharp spears that shot toward Queen, who was still happily mowing people down with his guns.
"Oh? You still have time to worry about other people?" Queen retreated with a laugh, the Gatling in his other hand spewing an even denser storm of bullets.
Moria darted desperately through the rain of lead. He wanted to save them, but there were too many enemies and they were far too strong.
"Flame Emperor."
King appeared at his flank, his leg wreathed in fire as it came down like a battle axe.
Moria barely managed to get his sword up in time. The force of the blow sent him flying like a broken kite. He tumbled across the snow for over ten meters, smashing more gravestones along the way.
He staggered back to his feet, spat out a mouthful of blood, and looked up just in time to see Jack pounding his last few standing crew members into the ground like whack-a-moles, the crunch of breaking bones clearly audible.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Moria finally snapped.
His eyes went crimson. He gave up on defense completely and simply swung his blade like a madman, using his own body to block the All Stars' attacks, trying to carve out even the tiniest sliver of life for the few people left behind him.
Fresh wounds kept opening across his body. Blood soaked his leather jacket a deep, ugly red, but it was as if he no longer felt pain.
"Captain Moria…"
A one-armed swordsman he had shielded looked at Moria's broad, battered back through a blur of snot and tears.
"Captain, forget about us."
"Go defeat Kaido. That is the path to your dream."
"Lord Moria, just becoming your crewmates was already the greatest honor of our lives."
The handful of half dead pirates that remained all cried out with him.
They were not afraid of dying. They just could not stand watching their captain like this.
The man who always laughed with absolute confidence, who said he would lead them to become the number one pirate crew in the world, was now drenched in blood and fighting like a demon just to protect them, the deadweight.
Those words hurt Moria more than any attack.
His whole body trembled and his movements slowed a fraction.
"Worororororo."
Kaido's laughter rolled over from behind him, full of mocking superiority.
"What touching camaraderie, Moria."
"But weaklings do not even get to choose their own fate, let alone protect anyone else."
"A captain who cannot protect his own crew, and he thinks he has the right to speak of the throne?"
Kaido raised his monstrous kanabo high.
In that instant, even the wind and snow seemed to halt. An invisible pressure fell over the battlefield.
Black and red lightning danced wildly along the kanabo, cracking and popping. That was proof of Conqueror's Haki coiled around the weapon.
"Why do you not rest here in the snow with your precious comrades."
"Thunder Bagua."
On the cliff, Kael yawned and popped the last skewer of oden into his mouth, mumbling around it.
"Fine. Call it a post meal walk. Move after eating and you will live to ninety nine."
Before the words had fully left his lips, his figure vanished from the rock.
In the center of the snowfield, a world shattering blow descended.
Moria did not even look up. His eyes were empty as he knelt there, one hand reaching out hopelessly, as if trying to grasp the shadows of those already gone.
Is it over?
Dreams, comrades, everything…
Clang.
The bone shattering agony he was waiting for never arrived.
Instead, a clear, almost shrill metallic ring echoed across the frozen plain.
The world felt like someone had hit pause.
Moria slowly raised his head and his pupils shrank to pinpoints.
A figure had appeared between him and Kaido at some point.
It was a man in a black coat, hands stuffed casually in his pockets, posture relaxed as if he were strolling in his own backyard.
Kaido's kanabo, wrapped in writhing black and red lightning, an attack strong enough to obliterate a small island in a single hit, was currently pinned under the man's foot, held stopped less than an inch above Moria's head.
The ground beneath the man's heel fractured, spiderweb cracks racing outward for dozens of meters, but the man himself did not budge. Only the hem of his coat snapped in the wind and snow.
Time seemed frozen solid.
The All Stars who had been enjoying the slaughter, the last half dead members of the Moria Pirates left lying on the ground, even Kaido himself, kanabo still raised mid swing, all stared blankly.
Kaido's knotted muscles were stretched tight. He could clearly feel it.
From that kanabo, the feedback was an immovable, overwhelming force.
His all out finishing blow had been stopped by… a single foot.
Kael let out another bored yawn and pressed down slightly with his heel.
Crack.
A surge of tremendous power blasted up the weapon. Pain tore through the skin between Kaido's thumb and forefinger, and a clear fracture line appeared along the kanabo that had accompanied him for so many years.
"Sa-shi-bu-ri da na, Kaido."
Kael finally spoke. His voice was not loud, but it carried cleanly to every ear on the battlefield.
"I am taking Moria. You understand?"
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